


Friendship is a game for three

by WildAndFreeHearts



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies), Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: Camping, Compliant to either Star Trek TOS or AOS, Friendship, Gen, POV Multiple
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-17
Updated: 2014-08-17
Packaged: 2018-02-13 13:14:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2152068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WildAndFreeHearts/pseuds/WildAndFreeHearts
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which, Kirk plans to make Leonard and Spock friends though the joy of camping, but they were already friends beforehand.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Friendship is a game for three

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Cân Cennau (cancennau)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cancennau/gifts).



Running a starship isn’t an easy job – rewarding perhaps, but never easy. However things can be even more strained than usual when two members of the senior staff seem to despise each other. When those two men also happen to be your best friends, things are even more difficult.

I’m not really sure why they dislike one another, but at least they seem to be professional about it. But it’s been bugging me for a while now. I’m going to show them how great they both are. Maybe then they’ll both see. Maybe then they’ll be friends too.

I just need to find a good planet.

\---  
  
Chess is not a three player game. It had been hard enough under normal circumstances teaching the Captain to understand how to use the other dimensional levels of the board to his advantage, but the task became more arduous still when Doctor McCoy began to cause continual distractions during playing.

All of the jibes the Doctor sent to the Captain about his lack of prowess at the task finally accumulated in the posed question ‘If think you’re so great, why not try a round against him yourself then?’ the grumbling acquiescence had been expected… however the outcome of the match had not been. I had been very sure of my superiority; however I was intrigued to an almost abnormal level when I lost the match. It was an unprecedented occurrence, as I had yet in my life to lose a game of chess to a human.  
  
I then had to concede to the Captain that perhaps the Doctor was much more intelligent than I had first assumed; for some reason, that statement then caused the Captain to laugh, and the Doctor to look at me with contempt. I don’t believe I’ll ever fully grasp the complexities and curiosities of emotions - compliments are neither jokes nor insults.

\---  
  
People shouldn’t be in the medical bay if they’re not dying, or at least severely wounded. Yet there are to two fully healthy people who have been constantly there recently, blundering around in it like they own it. For Jim’s part, it’s something I’ve come to expect. The sun will rise in the morning, the moon will shine at night, and James T. Kirk will be a friendly but unrelenting pain in my ass.

But this guy. Who’d have thought Spock could be such a troublesome busybody? Not really something you’d expect from a Vulcan, but it’s true. I can’t keep him out of anything, always digging through cabinets and drawers, checking the stock of tongue depressors, or lord who knows what else. He just shows up unannounced and starts talking pharmaceutical engineering and clinical science, like he’s some kind of medical genius and without him imparting his infinite wisdom to me, all of my future patients will die slow and painful deaths, due to my incompetence as a doctor.

Of course he is a smart as a whip, I’ll give him that. He really does know what he’s talking about. He doesn’t mince words either, just gets straight to the point and doesn’t seem to say one word more or less than he means too. And when he’s asked to do something I need him to do he does it without whining or complaining. It’s rare to find that kind of thing in a person.  
So maybe him hanging around isn’t such a big problem after all. Like Jim. Not that I’d ever tell either of them that. I don’t have a cure for swollen ego yet.

\---

I should have known that something was up when they both gave in so easily, but for some reason I didn’t think anything about it. I was too excited about having finally reached Gilirous IV. I hadn't had time to focus on anything but our latest mission and a few chess games for almost a month and I was ready to have some shore-leave.

I did notice just a short while after we beamed to the surface that they weren’t shouting at each other like they normally would be just a few weeks ago (well, more like Bones shouting and Spock being stoically disagreeable). In fact… they were kind and polite, and even helped each other set up the tents – Bones grumped and Spock quipped, but neither seemed to have any bite, in fact it almost seemed playful. It was kind of spooky at first and I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop… but slowly as the day progressed from building a fire, to catching fish, and wore on into evening I realized that it wasn’t going to.

Somehow without my noticing the two of them seemed to have already become friends. I was put out for a moment that I hadn't had my chance to mastermind it, but that feeling was quickly replaced with simple relief.

Around the campfire that night, we sang and told stories and jokes (I could swear Spock almost smiled at one of them) and Spock even played his lute. I’m not sure when I fell asleep to the beautiful sound it made, but when I woke up, I remembered that I couldn’t think of a time I’d felt more at peace.

As we packed up our gear to get ready to beam back up to Enterprise, I turned to smile at my two companions as they bickered about the best way to utilize room in a backpack. “We should do this again some time.”

They both stopped and looked at me like I had just interrupted something important – that their debate had been something pressing.

“Sure Jim, whatever you say.” Bones huffed. “But next time though, remind me to bring Spock some sedatives. The man was up almost all night, shuffling around the camp taking reading on his tricorder. I hardly got a wink of sleep.”

“I do not want to be sedated Doctor. I was awake because I do not require as much sleep as a human, and I was taking the opportunity to study some soil readings and plant-life.” Spock said “However I do agree that I liked this experience and would not turn down the offer of a similar one.”

I just smiled and nodded. “Good, good, soon then.”

So I guess that the camping trip I had been planning for weeks was kind of pointless. I was sort of betting on using it to bring the two of them together to settle their differences. That obviously isn’t going to happen anytime soon though.

But they _are_ friends. We all are. And I guess that’s all that really matters.


End file.
